AMHERST — Worries about cuts to the reading and math intervention programs at the elementary schools, the possibility of diminished adaptive specials and placing heavier workloads on art, gym, music and library technology teachers are continuing to hold up the budget plan for Amherst’s elementary schools.
The Amherst School Committee on Tuesday directed school officials to bring forward a revised fiscal year 2027 budget to its March 31 meeting, the final date by which it can endorse a spending proposal that will go to the Amherst town manager.
Meanwhile, the Amherst Regional School Committee, which met just before the Amherst committee, quickly approved a $38.85 million budget for next fiscal year. That budget is up $1.77 million, or 4.8%, over this year’s $37.08 million budget, and preserves most existing programs and staff, and has no layoffs.
Much of the focus on Tuesday revolved around the Amherst elementary schools, which next school year will be consolidated into the under construction K-5 Amethyst Brook School; the existing Crocker Farm School, which will become a K-5 school with an early childhood education program; and the sixth-grade Chestnut Street Academy in part of the middle school.
The planned efficiencies in a $29.41 million budget brought about by these changes are not sitting well with some committee members.
“I think we should ask for everything we want, we should demand everything we want,” said committee member Laura Jane Hunter.
Contending that the committee should ask for more money from the Town Council, Hunter said the budget, as it stands, would put more demands on educators who are already stretched thin.
“There’s no way this is going to be a financially sustainable model, to remove critical pieces of our children’s education,” Hunter said.
It was a similar sentiment from Committee Chairwoman Bridget Hynes, who suggested that the new configuration for specials will be damaging to the sense of community, with specials teachers spread across buildings, and possibly leading to educational inequities.
The budget plan shows an increase of 3.85%, or $1.09 million, over this year’s $28.32 million budget. Hynes wondered if administrators could bring in a budget with a 5% increase, since the town’s assessment for the regional budget came in below guidance from the Town Council.
“What we send forward, we’re going to do our best to honor our town, our constituents, and, most importantly, our students,” Hynes said.
Committee member Deb Leonard said she is struggling with the plan. “To me, the specials issue has a cultural shift that’s very hard for me to let go of,” Leonard said. And chopping positions won’t be good long term.
“If we lose positions, we’re never going to get them back,” Leonard said.
The budget was put together with consolidation in mind, with Fort River and Wildwood schools closing, but concerns about the need for specials came from those who spoke at the meeting, left voicemails or wrote emails.
Even with that, committee member Sarah Marshall observed that an additional preschool teacher is being hired, along with several other professionals.
“There’s a lot added to meet student needs,” Marshall said. “Cuts are always hard, but I appreciate the very careful thought that the administrators and principals have put into balancing student needs.”
Marshall asked about whether experience will change with specials and whether students will get the same level of services for reading and math intervention.
“We’ve seen the rationale for making the cuts, but what will it be like for students if these things are done?” Marshall said.
If anything could be added, Marshall said she would suggest hiring library paraprofessionals and funding adaptive specials for students.
Tonya McIntyre, executive director of Student Academy Success, said sixth graders get every special, and in fact expanded instruction.
“I think the experience for the students, especially for sixth graders, is that they would have that and then they would have the world language rotation,” McIntyre said.
At Amethyst Brook, though, there are 30 classrooms specials teachers will have to teach.
“Different doesn’t mean negative, but I think the students at Crocker and Amethyst Brook will have those same experiences, because our teachers are exceptional, and the kids are going to find opportunities to thrive,” McIntyre said.
Wildwood Principal Allison Estes, who will be moving to Amethyst Brook when it opens, said the 30 specials lessons are not problematic.
“That is similar to other teachers on a Unit A contract,” Estes said, adding the schools are not asking them to teach more than other teachers, and they would actually have a little more planning time.
The biggest difference for teachers will be traveling between schools, McIntyre said, but those who do will have ample time to get from one school to another. “With the constraints we have, it’s a way to make sure all of our kids get all of the things they need,” McIntyre said.
Reading and math intervention are being realigned and “right sized” to ensure that no school has more than four to six students per section.
Yet this will have consequences, according to Christina Correia, one of the reading specialists and the only bilingual one at Fort River’s Caminantes dual-language program
“I’m advocating that there are no cuts to reading and math intervention,” Correia said, explaining that closing achievement gap through personal instruction helps students achieve grade level benchmarks, especially those whose first language is Spanish.
Frances Lonergan, another reading specialist and parent, said that making group work larger means losing flexibility.
“I urge you not to cut the services,” Lonergan said. “Efforts to standardize group sizes will ultimately limit the effectiveness of services and the positive outcomes, such as closing the achievement gap, and reducing the number of special education referrals, thus costing the district more money in the long term.”
Laura Evonne Steinman, the art teacher and LGBTQIA facilitator at Wildwood School, remains concerned about losing adaptive specials that make it possible for equitable access for students to art, gym, music and library technology. Steinman said there is an irony in cutting positions when opening a net-zero building.
“What does that say about who and what is valued? Steinman said.
Regional budget
The regional schools budget was approved in an 8-1 vote, with only Hunter voting against, though not offering an explanation for doing so.
Representatives from each of the four towns, Shutesbury, Leverett, Pelham and Amherst, at a recent four-towns meeting, indicated they can accept the associated assessments.
Using money from the school district’s excess and deficiency account, those assessments will be further reduced, with Amherst paying $20.43 million, a 3.5% increase, Pelham $1.41 million, a 7.77% increase, Leverett $1.93 million, a 3.59% increase and Shutesbury $1.79 million, a .73% increase.
School officials next year, though, will consider the assessments to be the higher amount for the purpose of building the fiscal year 2028 budget. That is prompting Leverett officials to consider bringing forward the higher assessment to Town Meeting this year, which would minimize the impact next year.
The regional committee also approved $497,000 in capital spending, with the most expensive items being $235,000 for an electrical service upgrade at the middle school and $100,000 for domestic hot water heaters at the high school, and assessments for debt service for previously approved projects, with Amherst to pay $761,660, Pelham $29,275, Leverett $86,012 and Shutesbury $67,625.
